Ivorian editor gets six-month imprisonment

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- A court in Abidjan on Monday sentenced the former editor of the privately owned Ivorian daily, Le Jour, Jerome Diegou Bailly, to six months imprisonment for "forgery" and "fraud".
The court also ordered Diegou Bailly, who is also the president of the National Audio-visual and Communication Council, to pay 31 million FCFA in damages to the newspaper and a fine of 100,000 FCFA.
(130 US dollars).
His paper's board of directors dismissed Bailly in May for allegedly forging the signature of the director of finance with the intention of drawing funds.
The former editor, who was president of the Cote d'Ivoire National Union of Journalists before his appointment as head of the council, said he would appeal.
According to analysts in Abidjan, Diegou Bailly's problems arise from divergent views over the paper's new editorial policy.
These observers said that while other journalists reportedly back the leader of the Opposition Rally of Republicans, former Ivorian Prime Minister Alassane Dramane Ouattara, Diegou Bailly has been favourable to President Laurent Gbagbo, who came to power in October.